This latest report covering ACLPro – the Australian Cyber League’s huge Sydney 2014 event was submitted as both a long and short version. With plenty to cover over five games, the hope was to include a bit of the journey of the key combatants. There wasn’t enough room for it this time around, so enjoy a little more detail in the report below, including links to the full stream replays.

Copy:
Added to the schedule with the sweetener of a trip to France for the Esports World Cup (ESWC) Championships, the final came down to event favourite Muzza255 and Prodigy_V. Both chose Real Madrid letting individual playstyle decide the bout and it was Prodigy’s aggressive attacking game, winning 2-0 that earned him a trip to Paris.

Avant Garde had to make some big plays to get the monkey of their back by defeating Team Immunity, stepping up from their defeat at COD Championships to face Team Storm in the grand finals. The young team, with one of their members being only 13 – caused a huge upset and winning 5-2

Immunity’s LOL team kept the pressure on EX Dreamers with expert team fighting skills. EXD never gave up, aiming for some late game carries but Immunity weren’t to be denied, achieving a qualifying spot for the Oceana finals next to the already qualified Team Legacy.Starcraft 2 SC2 –
The SC2 event saw an epic Open bracket break down the best players into group stages, the best of which were seeded
into the Championship Bracket.

Weathering a solid comeback in winners finals from from Iaguz, KingKong and his dominant Zerg army booked another Grand Final. Not to be denied, Iaguz battled past the Protoss player Pigeon who overpowered Pezz and set up a rematch for his Terran army with KingKong. With a powerful economy, KingKong flooded the map with Zerg to follow his Brisbane win with a 4-0 victory proving himself head and shoulders over the competition.

Battle Arena Melbourne Melee champion Dekar disposed of another leader in the smash scene Caotic 3-0 in a commanding
semi final, before setting up a berth in the grand final after defeating Sydney’s Tedeth. Tedeth put a stop to Caotic’s comeback through the losers bracket to face Dekar in the grand finals. Dekar’s dominance of the ledge game saw him put aside Captain Falcon to use Marth to take out Tedeth’s Fox and win the event undefeated.

ACL Sydney was held at the Australian Technology Park, hosting a larger roster of competitions across five games, including some prestigious qualifiers.

FIFA
Footage:http://www.twitch.tv/aclpro/b/549289195
Muzza255 in blue, Prodigy_V in white
Timecodes:
2.25 players side by side
25min match highlights (goal replays)
Copy:
The FIFA final came down to event favourite Muzza255 and Prodigy_V, whose aggressive attacking game, saw him go undefeated in the tournament. He’s earned a trip to Paris at the Esports World Cup (ESWC) Championships, to play for Australia.
COD Ghostshttp://tv.majorleaguegaming.com/channel/acl
No timecode – can only play through! Planned for this and requested footage will update if able to obtain.

Copy:
Avant Garde had to make some big plays to get the monkey of their back by defeating Team Immunity, stepping up from their defeat at COD Championships to face Team Storm in the grand finals. The young team, with one of their members being only 13 – caused a huge upset and winning 5-2

Weathering a solid comeback from lower bracket by Terran Iaguz, KingKong flooded the map with Zerg to follow his Brisbane win with a 4-0 victory proving himself head and shoulders over the competition. Each of the top two players qualified for the next SC2 World Championship Series

Copy
Melee champion from the recent Battle Arena Melbourne, Dekar’s dominance of the ledge game saw him put aside Captain Falcon to use Marth in the grand final against Sydney’s Tedeth and his StarFox and win the event undefeated.

This report covered the event I help run for CouchWarriors, Battle Arena Melbourne. It was a big success, with higher prereg and the biggest attendance of all fighting game events for the last two years. The full text of the report is below.

One of the largest national Fighting game events, Battle Arena Melbourne, saw hundreds of players converge to compete in more than 10 games for the iconic BAM boxing glove trophy and over 10,000 in cash and prizes.

As the first Australian event in the Capcom Pro Tour, competition was fierce, but community minded organisers Couchwarriors also catered for new players with a Free to enter New Challengers tournament. Pleasing the crowd with impressive skills, the final between Anzel and Shoki saw Anzel walking away with his very own BAM exclusive arcade stick. It featured art by special guest, Jeffrey “Chamba” Cruz of Udon comics fame. (Official Street Fighter comic artist.)

Another special guest was Mick Gordon, sound designer and composer oF Killer Instinct. He shared insights on the game’s development, and even stuck around to play casuals with the players. In an amazing final, the KI winner was Darth Wishh in his very first tournament.

Among the other winners, we saw Sydney’s Myke reclaim the Virtua Fighter throne from two time winner AlexMD, while Tones went back to back in Dead Or Alive 5 Ultimate, Melbourne mainstay Rame took out Tekken Tag Tournament 2, a close Adelaide-Sydney Final saw n-megabytes dominate Injustice and in an amazing skills showcase, Brisbane’s Baxter took first place in both King oF Fighters 13 AND Ultimate Marvel VS Capcom 3.

There was a huge crowd For Smash Bros across Brawl, Melee and the custom Project M. The amazing growth in the Smash community saw over 70 people compete just in Melee singles with Dekar walking out the champion.

Finally, vying for a trip to Singapore to compete in the South East Asia Majors, the final oF the 80-player Street Fighter 4 event was SL|Sol over DB|Toxy, who had won the 3rd strike tournament earlier. His beast mode Akuma wasn’t enough to overcome Sol’s Cammy to take out the top prize at the 6th Annual event.

]]>https://berzerkdc.wordpress.com/2014/05/28/esports-report-bam6/feed/0berzerkdc10245561_10152767742303943_6189334825958773219_nEsports Report for Good Game: COD Championships 2014https://berzerkdc.wordpress.com/2014/03/18/esports-report-for-good-game-cod-championships-2014/
https://berzerkdc.wordpress.com/2014/03/18/esports-report-for-good-game-cod-championships-2014/#respondTue, 18 Mar 2014 06:28:53 +0000http://berzerkdc.wordpress.com/?p=98]]>This report aired on Good Game on the Full report text and media links are below.

After a series of online and LAN qualifiers, eight teams of Australia’s elite Call of Duty players have emerged to meet in the recent ANZ Championship. Held in Sydney by Australian Cyber League, the slick finals event featured guest hosting and commentary by US COD casters FWIZ and PUCKETT alongside Australia’s own BIOACID. The event saw the best of the best fight for a share in $15,000 and one of only two spots at the Call of Duty Championship in Los Angeles.

Through a gruelling double elimination finals bracket, the grand final came down to dominant Team Immunity and talented up and comers, Trident T1Dotters. Immunity were favourites and advanced undefeated into the final, knocking AVANT into the lower bracket. There AVANT faced T1 for the second time, after knocking them out of winners bracket, T1 had clawed their way back.

T1Dotters claimed their revenge in a tense semi final, breaking from a 3 all deadlock to win 6-4 and book their trip to LA, but pride and the first place cash was still to be won.

The two sides came with some history. After being stung by a loss to T1Dotters only to come back from lower bracket to win the earlier LAN qualifier, Immunity would have been wary of the team that had cracked their armour once before.

An epic final unfolded as Immunity scored round one in Domination, but T1 started to impose themselves on the match with Search and Destroy in round 2 and played strongly to win 6-4, defeating Immunity when it counted.

Both teams will be representing Australia among 32 teams at the Call of Duty Championships in Los Angeles at the end of the month [on March 28-30]

I was pretty pleased with the copy, covering only three games gave me a bit more room in the minute approx of airtime to put across a bit more personality, a good fit for the GG tone and which played well in the news item. No long form this time, got a pretty good handle of what they were after and short form was all I needed for this one.

The final event of the year for the Australian Cyber League Pro circuit was held in Sydney with a mixed open entry and invitational tournament for Call of Duty Black Ops, Starcraft 2 and League of Legends.
Players qualified through performances in season play and yearly points to earn the right to play off for the title of 2013 champion.

League of Legends saw ACL Melbourne’s finalists facing off once again as the new blood in Team NV, formerly Wobbly Bears, battled Team Immunity. Immunity came back after a losing the first game – an epic 50 minute grind – before closing out the championship 2-1.

Footagehttp://www.twitch.tv/aclprolol/b/471816973
Match finish 1:27
Presentation 1:32Call of Duty Black Ops Grand final battle between team TRIDENT and IMMUNITY was extremely tight with regular lead changes and a clutch killstreak from Immunity’s Naked held off the challengers.

Starcraft 2
In a field full of strong players and upsets, the grand final matchup was between PIG, who knocked out the likes of Moonglade, and KingKong, a Korean student who convincingly schooled the competition in the way of the Zergling. A humble winner, he’ll spend his prize winnings on a car to get himself to uni.

Sydney finals – what events and competitions have led to this? How did players qualify?

ACL runs on a points based system – a mixture of online qualifiers and previous major events (Brisbane and Melbourne)
Players that have accrued enough points play off at the Sydney national championship finals

My latest esports news report for Good Game (see more about my reporting for GG here) finally allows me to report on my favourite scene, fighting games. Shadowloo Showdown (12-13 Oct 2013) is a great event, the second Melbourne major (see BAM) and one that the Shadowlogic team have worked hard to build as an international event. While BAM (Battle Arena Melbourne) and OHN (Ozhadou Nationals – Sydney) are majors that focus on Australian champions and interstate rivalries, SS centres on inviting players from overseas.

It’s a great way to expose local players to high level play – bring the internationals here. The latest SS took place in a beautiful new venue at the Flemington Racecourse. The lineup of guests was more modest than last year, but I expect that’s a positive to keep things more manageable. Being an organiser in the scene, I applaud this, and think that’s definitely a positive for the SS team.

Super Smash Bros
—
Local team Dekar and Redact took out Melee, while in Brawl, Canadian entry Tinman, used an unusual character Olimar, cleverly outplaying and overwhelming opponents in a barrage of attacks.

King of Fighters 13 (KOF13)
—
1st Xian (SG)
2nd Tokido (JP)
3rd Luffy (FR) (pronounced Louffy)
The last Aussies were knocked out in the early part of the top 8 Falco and Colonov as a stacked international bracket that saw top players Xian (Singapore) and Tokido (Japan) fight it out, This years Evo Street Fighter champ Xian took the crown.

Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 (UMVC3 or just “Marvel”)
—
Abegen (Japan) was a crowd favorite fighting through losers bracket with an unusual team of Tron, Thor and an incredible She-Hulk with heartstopping, crowd pleasing solo comebacks, but it wasn’t enough as Xian took out his second tournament win.

In the Grand Final Gamerbee, famously an Adon player, ran with Yun as his counter to Tokido’s Akuma which proved its value as a hard fought battle saw him win the first match and reset the bracket.
Yet the charismatic Tokido adjusted to impose a convincing win in the last set to finally win Shadowloo Showdown after four years of visits to Australian shores.

]]>https://berzerkdc.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/esports-event-report-shadowloo-showdown-2013/feed/0berzerkdcTokido, SSF4 SS13 WinnerEsports Event Report: CGPL Winter Call of Duty Championshipshttps://berzerkdc.wordpress.com/2013/09/15/esports-event-report-cgpl-winter-call-of-duty-championships/
https://berzerkdc.wordpress.com/2013/09/15/esports-event-report-cgpl-winter-call-of-duty-championships/#respondSun, 15 Sep 2013 06:21:25 +0000http://berzerkdc.wordpress.com/?p=27]]>For my second eSports report for Good Game, I had the opportunity to report on the live LAN finals for one of the CyberGamer Professional League seasons, this time for Call of Duty on PC.

CyberGamer are far and away the leader in online ladder and league sites in Australian gaming, so it was great that they had a LAN finals, and to have a chance to highlight one of their events.

The staff and particularly key organiser Richard Lawes were fantastic in helping provide information, background on players and the league (the Q&A answers for my backgrounding questions, below, came from Richard), not to mention excellent quality footage from their event. Below is a version of the copy I wrote for the Good Game episode that aired on 10 September 2013.

After fighting through a seven week online league with 40 teams competing, Australia’s Top 8 Call of Duty 4 PC teams qualified for the LAN final in the Cyber Gamer Professional League Winter COD Championships. The community came together for an engaging event highlighted by many new faces competing.

A full weekend of gruelling Call of Duty, playing Search and Destroy in First to Fifteen, Best 2 of 3 bouts led to a climactic tussle between old rivals Frenetic Array and Team Exile5.

Each survived close semi final matches. Event favourites Frenetic array, have won two of last three national championships. They saw off semifinal challengers Coup de Gras to set their sights on Exile5, who had just staged a disciplined semifinal comeback from 15-10 down to defeat Avant Garde, a newer team pulled together from top players.

With the lion’s share of a $7,000 prize pool on the line, Frenetic Array, confident after defeating Exile5 in last year’s final, overcame Exile5’s defensive and strategic play with aggressive pushes relying on skilful individual shots to take down the Championship 2-1.

General Notes

Final

Exile5 against Frenetic Array

Long rivalry between the two teams

Exile 5 style?

Team Captain SpachalaExile 5:

Defensive style – aggressive at the right moments. Play defensive when at advantage. Discipline.

10-15 down in semi and came back round by round. Able to adapt at the right time and

Frenetic array style?

Team Captain Josh –

Aggressive, confident

Strong on individual skill and good tactical teamwork to make up for a lower emphasis on overall strategy

4 Perth 1 Melbourne

Proactive they were reactive managed to push ahead and stay ahead. Finding the opponent and making the kills by individually outplaying opponents

Good affirmation of the newly formed lineup within the team this year

LAN builds intensity and stay hungry playing online

Final score 2-1

]]>https://berzerkdc.wordpress.com/2013/09/15/esports-event-report-cgpl-winter-call-of-duty-championships/feed/0berzerkdcEsports Event Report: ACL Pro Melbournehttps://berzerkdc.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/esportsreport-acl-melb-2013/
https://berzerkdc.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/esportsreport-acl-melb-2013/#commentsThu, 22 Aug 2013 14:00:31 +0000http://berzerkdc.wordpress.com/?p=22]]>Here is the long form version of the report prepared for Good Game on Australian Cyber League‘s Melbourne event which took place on the 10th and 11th of August. I also submitted a short version which was the basis for the item that aired.

In our first report on the top events in the Australian esports scene, Australian Cyber League held its second major event of the year, in Melbourne last weekend.

Over 400 players and spectators gathered for League of Legends, Starcraft 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops, with the 220 competitors vying to take a share in over 18,000 of prizes.

The event was defined by new blood challenging top players, with unsigned LOL team Wobbly Bears shocked the field with powerful team play and make it the final with Team Immunity. However the winners of the PAX Riot event held firm, showing why they’ll be representing Australia in Germany later this year.

Starcraft favourite Moonglade fell victim to teammate Rossi during regular rounds, but it was another Zerg player, Iaguz, with outstanding micro skills and command over the TVZ (Terran vs Zerg) matchup, who pushed through the base of runner up Petraeus to claim top spot.

Finally, in a nailbiting COD:BO final, newcomers Capital Punishment created a sensational near upset, taking highly touted, Team Immunity to the limit. A clutch comeback after losing 3 flag carriers in the capture the flag round granted victory in a match where a split second difference would have meant defeat.

After climbing the points ladder over the season, players can now look forward to ACLPro’s Sydney National final later this year.

Datapoints:

I interviewed ACL CEO Nick Vanzetti for some hard and fast data on the event, then talked with players and team managers for insight into the key moments of each tournament. Thanks to Derek Reball of team NV in particular for his COD insights, and a special thanks to ACL stream master JB Hewitt for being a consummate professional and supplying great raw footage of the event

General Questions:

What is the overall prize pool?

18,000 total pool

ACL Melbourne is the 2nd major of the year. What event does this lead to?

Players that have accrued enough points will play off at the Sydney national championship finals

What is the next event?

When is the final?

See above.

Does a win here add to international standing?

No – not linked to an international event.

What can new players get out of their tournament experience at ACL?

Pool play means every participant is guaranteed to play a minimum number of games

Open entry means everyone gets a chance to play into the finals

Key takeouts from the event:

Call of duty – upsets

Lol team finals, one of the teams was put together as just a group of friends in the last few weeks

Not aligned with any organization

New blood have been showing the top tier can be beaten

Attendance 220

With spectators 400

Beat attendance record for COD and Sc2

Specific Game info:

LOL

winner – Team Immunity

Runner up – Wobbly Bears – A team made up of players pulled together by young player Matt, who wasn’t old enough to go with Team Immunity overseas. Amazing synergy in a short space of time.

Recent record of winner – Immunity won pax riot event and going to Germany

COD

winner – Team Immunity

Runner up – capital punishment

Clutch moment – “Literal clutch, 3 flag carriers relay-died right on top of the winning capture. Split second difference and it went the other way”

Recent record of winner – Team immunity have dominated recent COD events and were the favourite

Next COD event – CyberGamer COD PC invitiational, end of August.

SC2

winner – Iaguz

Runner up – Petraeus

Clutch moment – Iaguz pushed his base with marines and mines, outdid the micro battle with mines marines and nedvacs

Key skill of winner -strong tvz throughout, great multitask

Recent record of winner – went to IEM Singapore and solid performance in group of death

Next event – WCS world finals/ACL Sydney

]]>https://berzerkdc.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/esportsreport-acl-melb-2013/feed/1berzerkdcEsports reporting for Good Gamehttps://berzerkdc.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/good-game-esports-reporting/
https://berzerkdc.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/good-game-esports-reporting/#commentsThu, 22 Aug 2013 13:39:44 +0000http://berzerkdc.wordpress.com/?p=18]]>Good Game is Australia’s longest running dedicated video game show, and the only one that runs on a national free to air network. Deservedly, it’s becoming an institution much like “At The Movies” is for film reviews. GG is definitely review focused, but it’s long had a good news and features element, and always delivers with a good sense of humour and fun.

From time to time GG has covered competitive gaming events or eSports, but hasn’t found a way to do so consistently. Other than being a fan of the show and watching it to see an Australian perspective on gaming, I’ve also taken special interest in events coverage, and I’ve a little personal history on that count too. I was interviewed on the show once upon a time in 2007, after winning the Dead or Alive 4 Championship at World Cyber Games – Watch it here.

So when I saw GG airing a section of their PAX panel where they expressed interest in esports coverage, but not being sure “how” to do it, I sent a message to exec producer Janet Carr, offering to help. Janet, a good sport, followed it up and I made a pitch. It turns out we had similar ideas.

We discussed a simple way to include esports/competitive gaming through a fairly topline “sports report” section as part of the news segment, based on results, top players, and key moments. I offered to provide copy and would work with events to provide footage. This seemed like the best format for the show, given the time constraints of the news segment. The straightforward approach focusing on event results keeps it manageable from a freelance perspective, and seems to bring a benefit to the end result too, by treating Australian events as-is without having to puff anything up.

The timing was perfect, given an event I was familiar with was coming up. For the first report I worked with Australian Cyber League on their 2013 Melbourne event to trial with the new format. Knowing the team that runs ACL, and that they are great particularly with video content, I got in touch and worked out a plan to obtain footage. Then, I attended the event, and thanks to the input of players, team managers and the ACL team, I gathered the key info I needed. For your interest, I’ve posted the longer form draft of my report here

So it’s great to be able to contribute to the show, and the GG team combining the report I handed in and the footage with their signature flair. The material and the event was treated seriously, with an engaging and amusing read from presenter Steven “Bajo” O’Donnell.

The segment came together really well, and based on the positive reaction, there will definitely be more.

What comes next? Feedback, and Coverage of upcoming events

I’m in regular contact with event organisers and will be targeting future events to compile reports for Good Game. If you want to bring an event to my attention or just get in contact, you can tweet me on @BerzerkDC or email me berzerkdc [at] gmail [dot] com

What a weekend. Thanks ‪#‎PAXAus‬ team, attendees, for such a positive vibe & especially everyone who said hi or came to the 3 panels I managed to swindle my way onto!

Just walking the event and chatting to people was great, so many cool things going on and people having fun. Having the time to stop and get a detailed look at something, or take in a panel, is what enlivens any con, and I felt like PAX was set up to make this feel easier to do. The exhibit hall was big, impressive, loud, vertical and cool. The marquee walkways between sections was genius and made it feel inclusive and cohesive. The food vendors were actually really good (MRBURGER!), and the Big Top area was actually relaxing, fun, energising, all the same time, with the mix of bean bags to chill out on, console games to play, and the constant murmur of people enjoying themselves at tabletop. It also had heaters. Oh man.

Had a great response to all of the panels – a real highlight and privilege to run two and be a guest on one.

A panel wrap up and shoutouts:

The Anime and Gaming panel on the Friday really set me on a high note, so many cool questions, people were really engaged and interested. From what felt like a fun, niche subject, to what was a packed out session to which we got heaps of good feedback, its clearly something people felt a strong positive response to. I think we’ll definitely have to do this one again.
Working at the Madman booth all Friday was a treat, even 5 weeks on the trot of doing cons, thanks to my colleagues and the enthusiastic attendees.
Big props to the panelists who joined me, Kwenton Bellette, Nathan Robert Cocks, T-Rex Jones, Jason O’Callaghan, Bradley D-Yoshii Jolly – what a smart bunch. I think we have video and audio of this one that we can piece together, so this will be fun to revisit.

On Saturday the Crafting a Game for the Otaku Crowdwas a treat, taking some of the anime panel themes but more strongly focusing on Japanese game development, thanks to special guest Miyauchi-san, of Omega Force, producer of the Dynasty Warriors games. Was really fascinating, and fun to be part of essentially a panel interview of the guest. The search for refinement and perfection in Japanese development was so intriguing, I had many questions to ask myself. Thanks heaps James Kozanecki for inviting me on the panel, Paul Houlihan for erudite, interesting and well crafted hosting, and Brad Jolly again for detailed knowledge! This was great.

Finally today, the State of Play: Competitive Gaming and Esportspanel was a rewarding one to be part of, touching on such an indepth topic was always going to be tricky to contain in an hour. Focusing on the organisers/organisations running events now felt like the right way to go, and sharing positive stories on the scene was really fun. I hope it serves as a good conversation starter and inspires some collaboration. BIG thank you and much credit to the participation of panelists Nick Vanzetti, Jessie Vonangel Rozema, Alex Walker, Mark West and Derek Reball, great contributions. Great to talk to and see many other fine esports people at the show and panel who contributed in some way. Working together, we can build it stronger